A 53-year old Bothell man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to production, distribution and possession of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes.

Donald McCoy Jr. was arrested in October 2016 and has been in federal custody since that time. McCoy faces a mandatory minimum 15 years in prison and up to 30 years in prison when he will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge James L. Robart on March 12, 2018.

According to records filed in the case, McCoy came to the attention of federal law enforcement in 2016, when an undercover agent using peer-to-peer file sharing software observed images of child rape being shared from a computer tied to an Internet protocol address that traced back to McCoy’s residence. After obtaining the address and a court-authorized search warrant, law enforcement executed the search at McCoy’s home. Forensic examination of various electronic devices revealed that McCoy had made images of the molestation of four young children between the ages of 6 and 13 years old. McCoy molested several of the young children while they were asleep.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with assistant with the Seattle Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Hampton.